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Indie labels
DOING IT for the kids, or The Man in disguise?
Find out with our handy cut-out-n-keep
bluffers guide to major record labels.

	Bar/None	Chocolate USA (record of thee week on RTR-FM), Tindersticks (suave, literary gents, with classical educations all round), Epic Soundtracks (Nikki Sudden's younger brother, ex-Swell Maps, Jacobites, These Mortal Souls, Crime & Thee City Solution), Yo La Tengo (Hal Hartley likes 'em, and that's good enough for me!), Wallmen (vaguely 3Ds-ish glam, with enormous fuck-off flares), Outrageous Cherry (now, just suppose for arguments sake that the Ramones had been a 60s garage/powerpop outfit...)
	Bees Make Honey	Cosmonauts, the Cruise Control Pills, Will Simmons, Laundromat, Luke the Drifter, Innocent Nixon, Tricky The Cosmonaut, Wonderboy, Wizard Ho Ho, Chomp, many others too kewl to mention.
	Candy-Ass	Destroy-all-mathboys lesbionic grrrlpunk from Portland, Oregon: Team Dresch, Hazel, The Surf Maggots, Vitapup, The New Bad Things, Kaia, Gretchen Phillips, Excuse 17, Lovebutt.
	Carrot Top	Fab little label from Chicago run by one Mr Pat Monaghan (no relation to Perth scene ledge of that ilk). The Coctails (not a lounge band, apparently), Palm Fabric Orchestra, Disco Inferno (dead souls, glaciers collapsing, sudden pause, a clearing: avenues all lined with trees, guitar patterns revolve, fall apart; a sense of motion), Slipstream (ex-Spiritualised, dreampop soundscapes caustic and lulling by turns, a la Perth's own Bluetile Lounge), Handsome Family (why aren't REM this good any more?).
	CassetteNet	My Australian lo-fi / indie / experimental / home-taping page, with Melbourne's Chapter Music, From The Same Mother and Spill labels.
	Chainsaw	Dykepunk/queer positive label from Olympia, distro thru Outpunk and Candy Ass. Team Dresch, Sleater-Kinney, Kaia, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse Seventeen, The Fakes, Sleater-Kinney, Kaia, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse Seventeen, The Fakes
	D-Tox	A great little mover from North Carolina's Research Triangle (home to thee Superchunk/Portastatic/Bricks/Polvo scene). Ben Folds Five, Raymond Brake, Geezer Lake, Bicycle Face, Eugene Chadbourne, Very Pleasant Neighbour, Drunken Boat, Eighthundred, Robert Delaney, Slowchange Madagascar, Well Nigh Forgotten.
	Elephi Pelephi	Utterly legendary lo-fi label hugely loved by all at RTR-FM (well, once upon a time, anyway) for their celestial line-up of Happy Giant, Ham Steak, Stringbean, and Hatestick. Did I mention we love 'em?
	Endearing	Cheerleader, B'ehl, The Bonaduces, Clag, others.
	Fierce Panda	Wondrous UK label w/ kewl series of 7" compilations from thee likes of Super Furry Animals, Mexican Pets, Harvey's Rabbit, Glasgow's famous Spare Snare, (Australia's own) Noiseaddict, etc. Huge!
	K Records	Calvin Johnson's lo-fi love affair, home to his own Beat Happening and Halo Benders (hurrah!), plus Tiger Trap, Mecca Normal, Dead Presidents, Fitz of Depression, Lois, Modest Mouse, The Softies, Some Velvet Sidewalk, and the International Pop Underground series of singles.
	Kill Rock Stars	Successors to the K crown: Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear, Free Kitten, Godhead Silo, Unwound. Compilations: "Kill Rock Stars" and "Stars Kill Rock". Wordcore series of spoken word 7"s w/ Slim Moon, Kathleen Hanna, Jean Smith, and Juliana Luecking.
	Matador	Do the names Pavement, Superchunk, Liz Phair, JPS Experience, Railroad Jerk, Mark Eitzel, Guided By Voices, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Yo La Tengo, Pizzicato Five or Bailter Space mean anything to you? Has dubious distribution deal with Atlantic.
	Nut Music	In-house label for well-regarded Mole zine. Distro by Squealer Rekids.
	Pop Narcotic	Swirlies, Dambuilders, Versus, Helium, Small Factory.
	Pop Secret / No Depression	Bugskull, Simple Ones, Between Friends, DEA, The Dickel Bros, Matthew Hattie Hein, Lloyd Dobler, Mean Spirit'd Robots, The Feelers (Ralf from Halo Benders), Fleurs de Lis.
	Postcard Records of Scotland	Orange Juice, Joseph K, Aztec Camera, early Go Betweens. Legendary stuff from the golden age of the world, before the dark times. Before the Empire.
	Sarah	Hurrah! Field Mice, Sea Urchins, 14 Iced Bears, Brighter, Orchids, and a gadzillion others too twee to mention. Very pukkah label (handmade sleeves before it was fashionable, etc). Discography and so forth here.
	Sh-Mow	"No more wussy music outta Colorado!" (it says here). Iz, The Reejers, Small Dog Frenzy, St. Andre (Colorado's answer to Moonshake) and thee fabulous (if decidedly wussy) Munly (Colorado's answer to Galaxie 500).
	Simple Machines	Run by Jenny & Kristen from Tsunami: "We are a small independent label based in Arlington VA. We started out four years ago with a series of 6 compilation 7" releases, each named after one of the six simple machines of science." Lungfish, Mommyheads, Tsunami, Grenadine, Tear Jerks, See Saw etc. Responsible for thee "Fortune Cookie Prize" Beat Happening tribute album and the "Working Holiday" singles club CD. They roxxor (you do say that over in America, don't you?).
	Squealer	A nice little earner from Mad 'n' Butch. Joe The Fireman, Milk Badger, Bicycle Face, Geezer Lake, June-Genius, The Mind Sirens, Refridgerator. Also distribute De-tox, Pop Narcotic etc stuff. Known for unique packaging -- all releases to date except one have come in one-of-a-kind sleeves.
	TeenBeat	Mark Robinson's groove train started with home-made tapes and progressed to singles and albums, all by Mark and his friends. Versus, Unrest, Eggs, Scaley Andrew, Butch Willis, Jonny Cohen, Blast Off Country Style, Sexual Milkshake, and more.
	WIIIJA	Seminal UK label with cred aplenty. From said maggot-ridden breeding pit crept such luminaries as Cornershop (left for Warners as soon as they became popular), Huggy Bear (now deceased), P J Harvey (left for Island as soon as she became popular) and Stereolab (left for Too Pure/Elektra as soon as they became popular). Current lineup includes Bumgravy, more.

Mr Bernard Langham :: Perth, Western Ashtraylia
"It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing" Stereolab "Ping Pong"

Last updated 04 January, 2003

"Now let's see, Frontier used to be distributed by RCA, but now the new Flop CD is on Frontier/550, and 550 is a division of Sony, but I heard something about Frontier being distributed by Ryko, which also released Sugar, who are on Creation in the UK, and Creation has a deal with Sony, and they used to have one with SBK, and... ah fuck it"